


Covering

by likeadeuce



Category: Marvel, Young Allies
Genre: F/F, Female Character of Color, Female Friendship, Prom, Romance, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-03
Updated: 2010-09-03
Packaged: 2017-10-11 10:35:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/111499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likeadeuce/pseuds/likeadeuce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Contains hand-holding, formalwear, and Kate Bishop being a fairy godmother. All the important things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Covering

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Gloss at Femslash10
> 
> Rikki, Anya, and Kate's canons are all somewhat in flux, at the moment, but I'm mostly working off the "Nomad" miniseries and "Young Allies" ongoing series, with a few assumptions and liberties of my own, including putting Rikki and Anya in an established relationship.

When Anya holds her hand in the hallway, as they walk from the lunchroom back to class, Rikki Barnes has a hard time thinking about anything but the pressure of the other girl's palm against hers. (It's dumb to feel like this. Rikki knows it's dumb. She's a superhero for crying out loud.) Rikki has been in battle beside Captain America. (Anya's a superhero, too.) Anya has saved Rikki's life -- more than once. And the other way around, of course, too. The point is, Rikki knows from thrills and chills and emotional roller coasters. So just walking down the hallway with her (smiling, laughing, goddamn gorgeous) girlfriend shouldn't be all it takes to make her this happy. Her mind shouldn't be so busy just thinking about (touching, kissing, stopping right here in the middle of the hallway and pushing her up against a locker) Anya, just because Anya's (small, capable, limber) fingers are wound around hers.

(But it is).

That's why Anya has to say whatever she's been saying, twice. "Sorry," says Rikki (too busy thinking about her girlfriend to listen to her girlfriend, isn't that what boys are supposed to be like?) "Say that again, Anya Sofia." (Using both of Anya's names because she likes the sound and because she likes it when people say _her_ name, likes the attention and the sureness that she is real, which in Rikki's life hasn't always been a given.)

Anya laughs, then, laughs and lets go of Rikki's hand (wait, don't!), then slides fingertips under the ends of Rikki's long sleeve. "I _said_ I like your jacket." She leans up the sleeve of the army-drab top (more heavy shirt than jacket, really) that Rikki has recently taken to wearing over everything. Hoping to make the limits of the clothes she has in rotation at least a little less.

"You know me." Rikki wishes her laugh could be light and heady like Anya's, instead of nervous and brittle, the way she's sure it sounds now. "I'm the thrift store queen."

"Well, you rock the style my girl. You make it work." Anya leans up to kiss Rikki's cheek. "You will have to take me to your famous mystery thrift store _soon_."

"Right." Rikki wonders if the cracks in her voice are as obvious to Anya as they are to Rikki herself. (The thrift store is the church basement where she goes for hot meals on weekends when she can't pick up a shift washing dishes and so can't scavenge extra portions from the kitchen. The jacket was left behind by someone who'd been through and not come back, and though Rikki gave it to lost and found, they let her have it when it wasn't claimed, and she washed it out with soap in the showers at the Y, like she did with everything else, and now it smells like that soap, which is kind of a nice smell most of the time.) "We'll do that real soon."

"Speaking of thrift stores," Anya says. " I found an amazing red dress at Phoenix Rising. A _formal_-worthy dress." And now Anya's eyebrows imitate the Phoenix.

The only thing Rikki wants to talk about less than thrift stores is the upcoming Spring Fling, which is why she remembers to blurt out, "Dinner tonight. . .Steve invited me. . .us. . .do you want to --?"

This stops Anya in her tracks (very few things do) and she sputters, "Steve as in Steve R--" Her voice drops to a whisper (more of a squeak) "Captain America?"

"Yeah, it's not a big deal. Just, I mentioned I had a -- a -- you. He said we should come by. His house is pretty swee. .."

"You've been to his house?" Anya covers her mouth and talks through her fingers. "Oh my God. You are totally his sidekick."

"I'm _not_." Rikki almost forgets to whisper. "I've been there for some training but I've never fought beside him." (Not in this universe).

"You've been there for training? Oh my God!" Anya grabs Rikki in a tight impulsive hug and says. "You are so cool. _My girlfriend_ is so cool." (Rikki doesn't feel cool, she feels lost and bewildered and just on the edge of being exposed as a horrible fraud). Then Anya kisses her.

(And for a second Rikki forgets to be scared.)

*

Steve's house is in Brooklyn, not very far from the girls' school. So Anya calls her father on the cell, tells him she and Rikki have a date, and promises they'll do their homework first. Then she puts Rikki on the phone and Gil Corazon makes Rikki promise they'll do their homework first, because (Gil trusts Rikki, for some reason, even though he knows everything she and Anya do together, the kissing parts, and the punching-bad-guys parts, and Rikki doesn't know why but) he has decided that Rikki is the responsible one. She decides not to mention that Steve Rogers will be there, not because it's a big secret but because (Gil trusts Rikki for herself), and rolling out America's favorite hero seems like overkill.

Since they promised, the girls actually go to a coffee shop to do their homework. Rikki doesn't buy anything (the dishwashing money is precious, the food prices here ridiculous). Anya gets a huge scone, but her eyes are bigger than her stomach, as usual, and Rikki (casually, hungrily) eats the leftovers so they don't go to waste.

They make it to Steve's at 6:30 on the nose, and he answers the door in an apron. His friend Sam, the superhero called Falcon, is there, and it turns out they're grilling on the back terrace, having an animated discussion about the best way to grill a piece of meat. A tall dark-haired man, who introduces himself as 'James', is there with them, and though she's never seen him out of costume, Rikki is sure it's the new Captain America. At one point, Steve starts to call him 'Bucky' but catches a glimpse of Rikki (who was Bucky in -- literally -- another life, who thinks for a fleeting second that if Steve didn't try quite so hard to spare her feelings, it would help her feel more real) and goes back to 'James.' Also with the patio group is a tall red-headed woman that Rikki recognizes as the Black Widow, and (Rikki is rather glad not to have to talk to her because) she is fully engaged in the grilling argument, which she seems to be winning.

For Rikki, who is slightly familiar with the place and the people, it's all a little awkward. For Anya, it's brand new and she blends effortlessly. (Rikki isn't jealous, how could she be jealous, it's Anya.)

Rikki goes in the bathroom and checks her look in the mirror (pats water on her cheeks to calm the flushing on her face, reminds herself that the jacket looks like a trendy thrift store find because Anya said so) and comes out to find her girlfriend in the living room, talking to a pair of other teenagers. The guy is tall and handsome (she wonders if he's relative of Sam's, then feels guilty for assuming), and is quiet while his friend (date?) talks animatedly. The girl is an athletic brunette and she's loudly declaring that she doesn't eat meat and doesn't know how many people can have so many different opinions about how to cook it (the smells of grilling are making Rikki so hungry that she isn't sure whether to feel guilty for craving a burger so much herself, or resentful of this other girl for turning up her nose at perfectly good food, and she knows neither of these reactions make any sense), when the brunette breaks off, points at Rikki, and says, "Hey, you're the new Nomad girl!"

"Kate!" her companion scolds, but she just shrugs, and something about the attitude and just seeing the two of them together lets Rikki put together the pieces.

"You're Patriot and. . .Hawkeye?" Rikki asks uncertainly.

Kate smirks. "Nobody's duelled me to get the name back yet, though Barton's welcome to try. Kate Bishop'll be fine." Jabbing her thumb toward Patriot, she says, "This killjoy is Eli."

"That's Captain Killjoy to you," Eli says, and Kate responds by saluting.

Anya weighs in with a dramatic sigh. "Doesn't anyone believe in secret identities?" All this does is get everyone's eyes on her. At which point, she laces her fingers through Rikki's and says, "I'm just Anya. I'm here with her."

"Okay, just Anya," Eli says agreeably.

"Okay, Spider-Girl," Kate coughs into her hand.

Anya gasps indignantly, and Rikki says, "Anya is _definitely_ not Spider-Girl!" (As far as Rikki knows, this is still true.)

"That's what I've been saying!" Anya says triumphantly, squeezing Rikki's hand. "I'm just dating her. I mean, she's dating me, this is our -- what our _fourth_ date?"

Rikki hasn't thought of having dinner at Steve's as a date, much less does she know how to count the number of times they've gone out patrolling (and does it still count as a date if you spend half of it kidnapped by the Bastards of Evil?). She's got no idea what counts as a date so she just blurts, "We have Spring Fling next week at school." (Once she's said it, she feels about twelve years old, instead of sixteen.) "Anya's on the, uh, planning committee?"

"The _Allies_ committee," Anya expands (or corrects, and Rikki wishes she could be enthusiastic about school politics as her girlfriend is, but since the politics at her last school led to undercover hate groups and the death of her brother, Rikki can't help being a little gun-shy). "It's just part of the regular prom but the Gay-Straight Alliance is sponsoring an education committee and a bunch of us are going as a group to make sure there's a safe space for LGBT students and I found the greatest dress at the thrift store it's this red flapper gown and it has a fringe that kind of looks like old curtains but it's awesome and --" she bumps Rikki's shoulder "Rikki still won't tell me what she's wearing."

(Rikki still doesn't know what Rikki is wearing). She gives a weak smile. "I'm working on something awesome."

Kate catches her eye. "Oh, I can tell you are."

Then Steve calls them into the kitchen.

*

Two nights later, Rikki comes home to the studio apartment where she's been squatting, and finds Kate Bishop seated on the fire escape, legs swinging into her open bedroom window.

"God!" Rikki drops her books and assumes a fighting stance. "You -- Hawkeye? What are you doing? How'd you find my -- " (hideout) "-- where I live?"

"I'm an Avenger." Hawkeye -- no, Kate; she's just wearing jeans, boots, and a form-fitting top -- shrugs and slides into the room, carrying a garment bag (a garment bag?) over her shoulder. "We have our ways."

"Ok, Miss Avenger," says Rikki. "FYI, I might have thought you were a bad guy and shot you. Did you think of that?"

"You have a gun?" Kate demands.

"I might have," Rikki defends (she has thought about it; she's alone and she can fight but she doesn't have powers, and anyway, Kate doesn't know that she wouldn't have one) still gathering herself. "Why didn't you call me like a normal person?"

"I have a thing I ask myself. What would Clint Barton do?"

"So this Barton person you idolize is a lunatic?"

Kate considers. "I hadn't thought of it that way."

"Well, maybe you should get a new role model," Rikki huffs.

"Hey." Kate looks at her, intently. She reaches out and touches Rikki's shoulder. "I really didn't think about it. I scared you. I was an asshole. I'm sorry."

"It's all right," Rikki says grudgingly. Then her eyes travel to Kate's parcel. "What's in the bag? A body?"

"Take a look."

Calming gradually, Rikki kneels slowly and undoes the zipper. She catches a glimpse, inside, of silky black cloth. "I already have a costume."

"That's how I got your measurements. It's okay. My dad has a guy on retainer who's pretty good with this stuff."

"Your dad has a tailor on retainer?" (Different worlds, Rikki thinks.)

Kate shrugs. "Between debs and Avengers crap, I need quick turnaround sometimes. He's good. If you don't like it, there are modifications."

"It's pants," Rikki says, weakly.

"Like I said, there are modif. . ."

"No! I want to try." (God, God, does she want to try.) Rikki puts on the pants, which fit her tight and perfect. The top is a tailored silk blouse, and over it a waist-length bolero jacket.

(Rikki thinks Kate is peeking through her fingers as she changes, but decides it's just curiosity about the clothes.)

Kate helps her straighten the shoulders, pointing to the red and white star motif along the neckline. "_That_ was Eli's idea." (Rikki likes Eli's idea). "If you want to go with a more typical tux jacket. . ."

"No. I. . ." Rikki squints in the badly streaked mirror that stands propped in one corner of her room. (She loves the way she looks in these clothes. Nothing like her costume but _enough_ like her costume to be sure she's the girl that Anya somehow seems to have fallen for.) "Do _you_ think it looks all right?"

"_I_ think it looks dead sexy," Kate answers. "It just needs the right boot. Now I'll give you a card for my shoe guy, and my hair guy -- you have a hair appointment at three on Saturday. Get there five minutes early and ring the bell because I love Fernando but he'll use any excuse to run out and have a cigarette and then you'll be running behind and. . ."

"Kate!"

"Huh?"

"This is really nice of you. Really really nice. But -- why?"

"Because you deserve it. You're a superhero. You're a superhero, and I'm a debutante with a trust fund. And also, incidentally, a superhero."

"Just -- you -- don't think it's kind of frivolous?"

Kate looks at her, hard. "You're, what? Sixteen? I bet you can count the number of frivolous things you've done in your life on one hand." She looks meaningfully up at the water stains on the roof of the barebones room.

Rikki coughs. "Steve offered to help." (She can't have anyone thinking that Steve Rogers has just left her like this.)

"I know."

"I didn't want to deal with a foster home, and -- he offered, but I don't want to be his _ward_ or something weird like that. I can take care of myself. It's important. You know?"

"I know. I'm not sure _why_ but. . . I'm sure it's important to you. And I'm sure Steve knows what he's doing. Though I'm kind of surprised your girlfriend hasn't. . ."

"Anya doesn't know!" Rikki says. "That is -- she knows -- I told her I live alone but she doesn't --" (She doesn't know how bad it is).

"Uh-huh." Kate nods. "How long you think you're gonna be able to keep that up, with her not knowing?"

"Just until --" (until until --)

"Until what?"

"Until --" Rikki feels the tears rising to her eyes, (she thinks 'until' a lot, meaning the world back the way it was, her own world if it wasn't such a great one) and then Kate is hugging her.

"Hey," Kate says. "Hey. I'm not Captain America, hmm? I'm just a debutante with a trust fund and a bow and arrow. I'm not gonna give you a lecture about the right thing to do. Just -- the whole web of lies thing is complicated enough with your enemies, you know. Your friends are usually the people on your side. Now. Promise me you'll make an effort to be frivolous?"

*

The formal is like a happy dream. Rikki finds a perfect pair of black boots to match the outfit (then buys a not-quite-perfect but still very nice pair a tier down in price), gets her hair deep conditioned, trimmed, and French braided (and gives her leftover dishwashing money to a homeless man in front of a bodega) so that she feels almost adequate to the task of escorting Anyay (vibrant, breathtaking in her fringey flapper dress Anya) to the community center for the dance.

At first, no one really dances (and it seems they'll rest in that state of awkward separation forever) but some of the boys in the Allies group get it started, and then there are some boy/girl couples, then Anya gets tired of waiting and sweeps Rikki out onto the floor. Rikki begins the night feeling like part of the group she's come with, but an hour goes by and everything feels so right that the groups stop mattering so much. Rikki just feels like part of the school, everybody laughing and having fun together. Then there's a slow dance, as the night winds down. She's out on the floor with Anya, the other girl's head resting against her shoulder, and it's like they're back in the hallway, holding hands and Anya is the only thing that matters, the only thing she knows.

*

Anya has money, from her father, for a cab ride home. It's not exactly a limo, but it isn't the subway so it feels like a pleasant luxury. Rikki hails one, and holds the door for. "Thank you, madame," Anya purrs. Rikki's heart swells, feeling very grown-up. (And something else swells in her at the sound of her girlfriend's growly voice).

Rikki fastens her seatbelt, waiting for Anya to say her home address, but Anya is peering back at Rikki. "Let's go to your place first."

"What," Rikki gasps. "_Now_?"

"When better?"

"I -- I live by myself."

"I know." Anya's eyebrows shoot up, and (Rikki's face warms as) she understands. "I know," Anya repeats, and leans forward to plant a kiss on Rikki's lips.

"All right, girlies," grumbles the driver. "If you wanna play kissy-face all night, it's fine with me, but the meter's gonna be running so why don't you tell me --"

"Rikki?" Anya teases, running a finger down the side of her face.

"I don't want to!" Rikki snaps, pulling back. "I don't want you to see where I live, all right?"

"You think I don't know that?!" Anya retorts, mirroring Rikki's tone exactly.

Rikki stares, then slumps back in her seat. "You knew," she says softly. "You knew I was lying.

"Of course I knew. I'm not stupid!"

"Oh," Rikki swallows. (Of course Anya isn't stupid, Anya notices everything, how did Rikki ever think she was fooling anybody, much less the one person she most wanted to fool and the last person she possibly could?) "Fine then," Rikki says, and tells the driver her address.

"About time," he grumbles, then looks back at her in surprise. "That's not such a bad neighborhood."

Rikki covers her face. "Just drive." Then she adds an instinctive, "Please." Habits learned from Captain America die hard.

On the ride, which isn't that long in objective time (but approximately forever in fighting-with-your-girlfriend time), the girls look out their separate windows. "If we were older," Anya says, "I'd swear you had a husband. And two kids. Or . . .Siamese cats or something."

"You watch too many movies," Rikki answers. "It's nothing like that."

The cab stops at the curb by Rikki's building. Anya pays cash, and the driver asks if he should stay. "No," Anya says. "We'll work it out."

"Good luck," he says, and Rikki hears him mutter, "Best show all week" as he drives away.

"So." Rikki points at the building.

Anya looks up the steps. "This isn't such a bad neighborhood."

"It wasn't," Rikki agrees. Walking to the front door, she takes a Swiss army knife from her handbag and jimmies the lock. "Then a bunch of these houses got foreclosed." She crosses her arms and looks defiantly at Anya. "I'm squatting. I could get kicked out of here any time."

"You think that's what I care about? If you don't want to live here, you can move in with me."

"With -- with -- you're my girlfriend. We're sixteen. That's totally inappropriate."

"God, Rikki. Wake up! Half a dozen kids in Allies live with somebody else's family because their asshole parents kicked them out for being queer. I know it's not the same thing, okay? I know your world got collapsed in some kind of dimensional crisis thing, and I'm so so sorry. I am. But -- the world's full of people who need help, Rikki. And if you'll let Steve Rogers feed you steak and Kate Bishop buy you a goddamn bolero jacket, it might occur to you that just maybe somebody who's in love with you can help you out too!"

(In love with you, Rikki hears. In love with you in love with you in love with you. She feels like a stupid idiot but she can't shake the feeling that Anya really doesn't want to see what's waiting for her upstairs.)

"Fine," Rikki says. "Come and see for yourself." Rikki takes full advantage of then new boots' stomping potential to pound up the stair, Anya's footfalls echoing behind her, then pries the lock of the second floor studio and kicks the door open.

"Here," Rikki says defiantly. "This is it." She gestures at the bare walls, the few sets of clothes, the furniture she's picked up off various curbs, and the mattress lying on the floor.

"Rikki --" Anya covers her mouth and looks around the room. "Rikki, this is -- well, it looks kind of -- cozy?"

"Cozy! Anya, I'm homeless!"

"You are. I -- mean, I know, technically, you are but --" She gestures around. "Rikki, this looks like a home to me. It looks like -- It looks like a home you made, so -- I -- don't --" To Rikki's amazement, Anya wipes a tear from her eye. "I don't understand why you're hiding your life from me. Because to me -- to me, see, this place looks like you. And because of that -- I think it's beautiful."

"Anya," Rikki says, sinking to the mattress beside her. "Anya, I'm -- in love with you, too. So I only want you to see the parts of me that are good and strong and -- yeah." She puts a hand on Anya's shoulder and leans close.

Anya swallows and says, through the tears streaming on her face. "How's that working for you?"

"Maybe not as well as I thought," Rikki says softly, and sinks down to the mattress beside her.

"Well if you're ever interested in learning another way --"

Rikki laughs. "I'll see what I can do." They lie there quietly for a moment, and then Rikki says, "Do we need to call your dad and let him know you'll be late?"

"I'll call him to take us home," Anya answers. "But not just yet."


End file.
